Income Gap Widened

Some disturbing news for those of us with incomes in the bottom 90%.

Income inequality grew significantly in 2005, with the top 1 percent
of Americans — those with incomes that year of more than $348,000 —
receiving their largest share of national income since 1928, analysis
of newly released tax data shows.

The top 10 percent, roughly those earning more than $100,000, also
reached a level of income share not seen since before the Depression.

While total reported income in the United States increased almost 9
percent in 2005, the most recent year for which such data is available,
average incomes for those in the bottom 90 percent dipped slightly
compared with the year before, dropping $172, or 0.6 percent.

The gains went largely to the top 1 percent, whose incomes rose to
an average of more than $1.1 million each, an increase of more than
$139,000, or about 14 percent.

The new data also shows that the top 300,000 Americans collectively
enjoyed almost as much income as the bottom 150 million Americans. Per
person, the top group received 440 times as much as the average person
in the bottom half earned, nearly doubling the gap from 1980.

Here is where the article gets interesting.  The professors that analyzed the IRS data say that this gap will have political ramification.  We already know of the social ramifications — the increasing number of people (including children) that went hungry, the growing number of families that are in eligible for public assistance.

“The nation faces some very tough choices in coming years,” he said.
“That such a large share of the income gains are going to the very top,
at a minimum, raises serious questions about continuing to provide tax
cuts averaging over $150,000 a year to people making more than a
million dollars a year, while saying we do not have enough money” to
provide health insurance to 47 million Americans and cutting education
benefits.

Here is where I believe a little socialism infused into a democracy is beneficial to our society as a whole.  Reinvesting in those that are at the bottom of our financial structure can only benefit our society.   When we (collectively) provide health care to all, we have a healthier society.  When we invest in education we have a more knowledgeable society. 

But, the "all for me" at the top 1% of our financial structure largely doesn’t care to see it that way.  I can say that when we witnessed 18 families pushed Congress to benefit themselves on the backs of the working class, otherwise known as the Paris Hilton Welfare Scam.  Political ramifications siding against the bottom 90% have been in full swing since 2001.